Five principles to underpin your impact
Know the impact you want to have and design impact into your research from the beginning.
Systematically represent the needs of those who will use your research.
Build relationships with those who will utilise your research and generate new knowledge together
Deliver quick wins as soon as possible to keep people engaged.
Keep track of your progress to improve knowledge exchange, and continue developing relationships to develop long term impact.
Reed, M. S. (2016). The research impact handbook. Fast Track Impact.
In planning for E&I, start looking forward by applying these first steps.
Another approach that may help is to start at the ‘end’ of your project.
Think about what your project's impact looks like to you eg. What do you want the benefits to be?
This will provide a roadmap of indicators for your impact, which you can refer to throughout and after your project.
CSIRO has produced a Impact Framework which can be useful to think about when planning.
Adapted from:
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. (2020). Impact evaluation guide. https://www.csiro.au/en/about/corporate-governance/ensuring-our-impact/evaluating-our-impact
W. K. Kellogg Foundation. (2004). Logic model development guide. https://hmstrust.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/LogicModel-Kellog-Fdn.pdf
So, thinking practically, what impact do you think your research might generate? This is sometimes difficult, especially if your work is in a more theoretical discipline. To help with the process, ask yourself questions such as what elements of your research might be interesting or useful to someone else? What in the wider world (policy, economy) links to your research? And where can we give most value?
This clearly links to the first of the principles (‘design’). What are your objectives? Which stakeholders do you foresee? What are the key messages you want to get across to those stakeholders? How will the message be delivered? And so forth. It may help to undertake a stakeholder analysis, and be open and honest (with yourself and others) about what can realistically be achieved, and what resources you need.
Academics have little enough time with teaching, administration and the research itself, so they need to ruthlessly limit the inessentials. You may need to consider going to every other meeting.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to those who might seem too powerful, too busy, or too high profile: in his experience they are often flattered, and ore than willing to mentor you.
Even with the process broken down into steps, it can seem insurmountable. So cut down to the tiniest steps, and set yourself achievable targets. Focus on small steps you can take every day.
(CSIRO 2015 Impact Evaluation Guide, p. 6)
Stakeholder interaction can be defined as the activity of involving and communicating with actors who are potentially interested in, or affected by, research studies and their results during the research process and in the communication of results.
should be placed at the centre of impact. Researchers need to develop a detailed knowledge and understanding of the stakeholders interested in or affected by their research. Building relationships from the earliest stage is essential; stakeholder involvement in research and impact planning can itself be important, as well as later in the research process when findings become available.